In college football obsessed Alabama, "the" top sport news
is spring football practice.

I'd be a fool to argue that fact. College football connects
Alabama like nothing else. And across America professional football is by far
the nation's most popular sport.

Fine. But to some of us this week begins our obsession –
baseball. The MLB season got under way, sort of, in Australia this past weekend
with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, but let's not count that. The season begins
in earnest this Sunday and Monday.

All that is to point out something I bet many of you may not
know in a state that is ground zero for college football. If I asked you to
tell me where you might expect to find more pro hall of fame members from
Alabama how many of you would say the pro Football Hall of Fame?

You'd be wrong.

It's the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in
Cooperstown New York.

In the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, you will
find seven native Alabamians enshrined. They are: Buck Buchanah, John Hannah, Walter
Jones, Ozzie Newsome, John Stallworth, Bart Starr and Andre Tippett.

But visit Cooperstown and you will find a total of 12 native
Alabamians inducted. They are:

Shortstop Ozzie Smith became the 10th native born Alabamian to be elected to baseball's hall of fame a few years ago

It's worth nothing that five of the 12 native born
Alabamians in the baseball hall of fame were all born in Mobile – Aaron,
McCovey, Paige, Smith and Williams.

No matter what hall of fame we're talking about, all of
these Alabamians were great players.

But it's in the baseball hall of fame where you find, I
think, several players who are truly iconic, namely Arron from Mobile and Mays
from Westfield, near Birmingham. The two are among the best of the best players
the game has ever seen.

What is cool about this list, for me, is I had the chance as
a young man to see Aaron, Mays, McCovey, Smith, Sutton and Williams play. And I
had the luck to meet Paige. On the football side, I had the privilege to see
Buchan, Hannah, Newsom and Stallworth play and the chance to meet Starr.

We are a football state.
But it's also worth knowing that we are more than just football and that
connects us too.

Chuck Dean is connecting Alabama through the stories told by its people -- sometimes about themselves, sometimes about their neighbors, sometimes about the places they call home.

Share your stories, or introduce us to people we should connect with. Reach out on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #connectAL, email cdean@al.com or send Chuck a note at 2201 Fourth Ave. N, Birmingham AL 35203.